I've always enjoyed doing a weekly recap on what's going on at the homestead. Its a wonderful way to share ideas gather tips and receive valuable feedback. It serves as an opportunity to step back and appreciate your achievements. It is too easy to forget all of our accomplishments when the list of things "to do" is long.

This weekly reminder paired with a garden journal, notes and diagrams and I have all of the history on our garden for all the years we have been here. One example is the notable change in seasons. We were two weeks behind on planting last year and this year we were even later than that ...which brings me to ...

Short Season Seeds

With such unpredictable growing seasons we have added to our collection a range of seeds that are "early producers". Things like the Czech Select Tomato that requires only 65 days, Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash (42-55 days), King of the North Sweet Pepper (70 days) and White Russian Kale (55 days) a slow bolting scotch type that I am really partial to.

By selecting some varieties that need fewer week of growing time it helps ensure that our garden produces as much food as possible during our limited growing season.

Manure/Compost/Soil Health

This year we were finally able to load up the raised beds with a healthy dressing of our own compost. This second bin will be another season in the making. We need to cover it with the tarp and let it cook. We aren't making nearly enough soil amendments to help us plant in our heavy clay soil so this is a big focus for us this year.

Today we'll be trying biochar and I am SO EXCITED about this. @xwalkran is outside digging the pit as I write this. You can read @mountainjewel's post on how do it here! we want to also try a worm bin and we are looking for a wood chipper.

Forest Clean up

@xwalkran has been busy with his chainsaw cleaning up in the woods. We had a fair number of damaged and fallen trees to take care of.

This will be a great start to stocking up on winter firewood for the furnace plus we have stacks of branches, twigs and logs to get started with our biochar project!

Equipment Maintenance

@xwalkran has been tuning up all of the equipment and machines: tractor, mower, ATV and also his chainsaw. He also had to fix a tire today on the ATV. I still don't understand the voodoo involved in this trick (he's explained twice) but that wart on the tire is like petroleum chaga. The wound is healed. If you need to know more you'll have to ask him!

The Blackberry / Raspberry Patch

Last week I showed you the two raspberry rows we had planted from suckers and cuttings. Since then we got 1.5 rows of blackberry cuttings planted. Most of these were propagated using a method called root tipping. We've ordered three new varieties of raspberries so we can plant in the final middle row of this field. We thought it would be neat to have a few new varieties in the mix.

New Varieties

Photos: Vessey's Catalogue

• Royalty - Late season raspberry. produces large purple berries.
• Anne - Ripens in August. Produces flavourful yellow berries that have a slight pink blush to them.
• Encore - Late season raspberry. Very hard, nearly spineless plants. Large fruit with excellent flavour.

Mock Hugelkulture Raised Beds

These beds were filled with sticks and twigs and then filled in with soil and manure in a sort of "mock" hugelkutlure bed a few years ago. I didn't have enough soil or compost to fill them so I made the best of what we had around us. The first year they did ok with things like kale and pumpkins, we were pretty limited with what we could grow because there was no where for roots to go. This year the logs have decomposed quite a bit and we've topped them up and the soil is looking great. The bed has all kinds of lovely wiggly worms so I'm very happy we did this.

This is how the project started before we filled in with soil/compost

Forest Mulch For The Gardens & Landscape

One thing we need a lot of is ground cover, and mulch for landscaping and moisture retention. There are a lot of decomposing trees around the forest and we've been bringing out buckets filled with mulch every day. These trees are completely rotted and fall apart at the touch.

Beautiful golden all natural mulch.

Greenhouse

Daytime temperatures are soaring in the greenhouse. I forgot to open the doors up today to let the air flow. The weeds just loved the heat in there which made it really easy for me to spot them and pluck them from the soil.

Sadly, nothing much is planted in there yet. We've still got some very cold nights ahead of us and I've been keeping an eye on the thermometer. All of the tomatoes and peppers plants that we grew from seed are being hardened off. They get brought outside every day for increasing lengths of time until they are resilient enough to be planted.

Thunderstorm and tree buds

I still can't get over how a single thunderstorm can entice such rapid growth. Everything that was invisible just a few days ago is well on it's way to opening up.

Lilac Buds

Rose Bush

Rhubarb

Apple Orchard

The orchard really does not look like much yet. We will be pulling back the sod, and mulching the heck our of this area over the next few weeks. We have a plan to eradicate as much lawn as possible. I am still looking for some mushroom spawn to plant underneath the trees.

Irrigation is a problem for us and I have to manually haul water to this location. I read about this irrigation idea where you place a 5 gallon pail with a few small holes drilled in the bottom near the root system of each tree. You fill them with water and it provides a slow drip irrigation to the roots. It's more effective than just pouring water on the ground because it allows the water to make its way deep in the soil instead of spreading along the surface away from the root zone.

Herb Spiral

Here's a different view of that big pile of rocks that you saw in my post last week. An herb spiral is a micro-climate of sorts for herbs. It's a really cool idea. Normally you would plant a spiral close to your kitchen but I already have loads of herbs by the kitchen.

The idea is that you plant herbs according to their preference and they support each other in their development. Those that like to be dry at the top, those that like moisture at the bottom, those that like shade go beside a taller herb, and so on. This is still a work in progress. We'll build up more of a slope, add more compost and soil and just beyond the bottom of the spiral we'll have a dug out "miniature pond". It's all about attracting frogs and good critters to the garden spaces.

Garden Expansion

I showed you some photos of the garden expansion last week but wanted to talk about more on where I am going with this. We intend to plant more trees and shrubs in this area, along with some other perennial foods.

The garden beds will get built up higher (the combat the clay soil) and I think we will drag some big logs from the woods to create walls for these beds. Most of this grass will get covered with cardboard, sawdust and mulch so that we can eventually have paths and walkways and no grass to contend with.

I would also like a small pond and some benches and basically my mind has a picture of an old English garden but with more practical edibles than decorative landscaping. I do think food is beautiful, especially perennial food.

I have big plans and a vision and it will be exciting to see this area transform.

Chickens

The chickens are happy to be outdoors pecking and scratching. The run that I built for them last year held up for the post part. I've had to repair one beam and with a few tune ups I think we'll get a few years out of this eclectic little project. This run leads to the fenced in pasture. I'm working on covering the top with some old shade cloth netting that I have kicking around. It will make it a bit more predator proof.

Dogs

We have literally bathed the dogs EVERY SINGLE day this spring! The odour clinging to them due to their fetish for rolling in corpse is amazingly revolting. Look at that face though. Dog bliss.

Well, I better get back to work. We've got seeds to plant, mulch to gather and some biochar magic to make! Happy Monday to you all!

ps. Did you know that Hawaii has approved a sunscreen ban in an attempt to save the coral reefs?The law wont be in place until 2021 but it's a step forward at least. Last week I wrote about the potentially damaging effects of commercial sunscreens on our health and provided some safe alternatives and strategies that might interest you

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[@walkerland ]
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
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